Tuesday, May 29, 2007

No goose down

I posted yesterday about my fears for the welfare of a pair of Egyptian Goose Goslings. Well, I think saw them today in our walk in the park.

They were really cute before:

Egyptian goose and goslings

But I'm afraid that when they get big...

Egyptian Geese

--they get ugly

gosling

(But like so ugly they're kinda cute...) Anyway, I was relieved to see them. And then just as we were moving on - some woman's dog starts chasing after them and they just barely made it to the water in time. I thought I was going to see the little goslings get eaten after all. Then the dog remembered he could swim. And I really thought I was gonna see gosling slaughter. But, the dog gave up.

And what did the owner do? Did she call him off. No, she just chuckled indulgently.

-0-

We saw other kinds of wicked bird behavior today, too. The swans with their swanlings thought that a Canadian goose got a little too close for comfort so the swan bit down on the goose's ass feathers. The goose swam/water skated/flew all over the place trying to shake his tail feathers (and the swan) - but not til the goose got onto land did the swan let go. It was hilarious. Though kind of scary.

Swans. Did you know that they can break your arm with one beat of their mighty wings?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You'll be just as protective of Cletus as mama swan is of her cygnets.

BTW...Happy Belated Birthday. It's hot and very dry in Tennessee. Please send rain.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I once took a very slimy "swim" in an apartment complex pond trying to retrieve my dog after he dove in after some geese. I wouldn't have done so, but the bastard kept at it for 10 minutes or so, despite my yelling and screaming, and I was afraid he'd have a heart attack. BTW, there was no way he was going to catch any geese. All but one flew safely off, and the one that stayed would slow down to give him encouragement, then speed off again. I'm convinced the goose was intentionally trying to drown him.